China Lighting Exports (HS 9405)

China's exports of lamps, lighting fittings and parts (HS 9405) reached RMB 168.51 billion in the first eight months of 2026, down 8.4% year on year — in a period when China's total goods exports rose 14.6%. This page collects the monthly series, the comparable categories and the methodology, with every figure tied to a named public source.

Key figures

Monthly series — HS 9405, RMB billion

"Basis" records how each row was obtained. Value-table rows are published figures; calculated and press-reprint rows are marked because they carry more uncertainty — see the caveats below.

How lighting compares — cumulative Jan–Aug 2026, RMB billion

Lighting is the only category in this comparison that fell. Household appliances and furniture grew, ceramics fell further. This is why a single national export growth figure tells you nothing about a specific product category.

Destination markets — national goods trade, cumulative Jan–Aug 2026

These are all-goods figures, not lighting-specific: customs does not publish lighting exports broken down by destination in the monthly value tables. They are included as directional context for where Chinese export volume is moving overall.

Reference rows

Methodology — why two sources disagree

HS 9405 — lamps, lighting fittings and parts

Everything under customs commodity code 9405. RMB, from the customs value tables. This is the most authoritative basis and can be traced month by month. It is the primary basis used on this page.

All lighting products (industry definition)

The whole lighting electrical industry: light sources, fittings, LED modules, Christmas lights and more. USD, compiled by the China Association of Lighting Industry from customs data. Broader than HS 9405 and better for reading the industry as a whole.

National goods trade

All merchandise imports and exports. RMB / USD, from General Administration of Customs press conferences. Used here as the benchmark against which the lighting sector's relative performance is read.

Why different sources quote +12% and -11.9% for the same period

Because coverage (HS 9405 versus the all-lighting definition), currency (RMB versus USD) and cut-off (cumulative versus single month) all differ. Before citing any lighting export figure, check those three things first.

Caveats

• January and February 2026 are calculated, not published: customs habitually merges the two months because the Spring Festival falls in a different month each year.
• March and April 2026 single-month figures come from trade-media reprints of customs data and are pending verification against the official value table. May to August are published value-table figures.
• One circulating source puts Q1 2026 at RMB 46.52 bn, -9.5%. Cross-checking against the value-table chain and exchange rates does not reconcile, which suggests a general-trade basis. It is not used here.
• Figures are reproduced in their original basis and are never mixed across bases. Where a conversion is needed it is stated separately with the exchange-rate assumption.

Sources

The General Administration of Customs publishes the previous month's data around the 8th of each month. The industry association bulletin and trade commentary follow within a week. This page is revised when a new month is published.

Scope and compliance

This dataset contains only aggregate statistics at national and industry level. It contains no company directories, no contact details and no customs declaration line items — trading in declaration data that carries personal or company contact information is an offence under Article 253-1 of the Chinese Criminal Law.

Cite this dataset

Related: all datasets · Guangdong industrial belt atlas · sourcing guides